People lately have been taking a backseat to profits. Blue chip companies, such as Sunbeam, AT&T, and Caterpillar, radically downsized when they made record profits and corporate management grabbed huge bonuses. What do you think these messages conveyed? Design the Brand U. If our employer is profitable and we’re adding value, what’s our employer’s responsibility […]
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This broader idea behind corporate responsibility is that senior management has a commitment to the welfare of their stakeholders beyond creditors and shareholders, specifically to employees, suppliers, and to the community. We all want to work for great and fair organizations. As more power shifts to employees and to contractors, we have more options for
Family Friendly Organizations Read More »
The Dilbert phenomenon and Handy/Hutchins work model speak to the larger issue that affects all of us, specifically creating a more balanced life. The problem is that many jobs are boring, inhumane, angst-ridden, or futile. Is meaningful employment with one employer then an oxymoron, something that may have worked 20 or even 10 years ago
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What’s your customer’s or employer’s business and work model? It may follow the Handy/Hutchins model or be some variation. Critical questions to ask your employer or customer are: Are you or your process part of your organization’s inner, middle, or outer rings. If your process is not part of the organizational core, then what’s the
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Coping with the Handy model is a huge problem for organizations as more workers see the handwriting on the wall and morph into Brand U’s. This started 15 years ago, but is now accelerating world wide. The Economist Magazine summed it up neatly: “Focusing on core competencies might mean outsourcing peripheral employees, but it also
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The smartest company wins To be the smartest company, hire the smartest people To have the smartest people, keep learning[i] [i] “Importance of Learning,” Fast Company, Greatest Hits: Volume 1, 1997, p. 1.
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Some companies are going to extremes to focus on core competencies by ‘virtualizing’ most or all of their business. Remember when companies made things? In the future, some companies may end up with little hard assets. Their core assets will be intellectual capital: trademarks, brands, people, inspiration, knowledge, or business model. This is already practiced
The Internet is a huge driver of the Handy model. Look at how Amazon.com reinvents itself and changes its business model. Amazon.com is the poster company of the ‘New Economy’ and for most ebusiness. Amazon.com started as an online bookseller but has morphed every month into a purveyer new goods and services.
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Handy model is a real organizational challenge to retain and motivate employees. As Handy said: “The old model of the corporation was a piece of property, a piece of real estate. It was, quite simply, the property of its owners. … The new model is based on an understanding that to hold people inside the
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The Handy/Hutchins work model is devilishly simple. It explains much of what’s happening in the workplace and provides the rationale for the Brand U trend. When Handy first proposed his vision of the corporate workplace, it was considered too bleak and radical. Middle managers were considered indispensable. Quality, information systems, accounting, training, industrial engineering, and
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